


Baby Watson Killed in 4x3

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [15]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Angst, Episode: s03e02 The Sign of Three, Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow, Meta, Minor Character Death, Other, Parentlock, Season/Series 04, Sherlock Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-17
Updated: 2015-11-17
Packaged: 2018-05-02 00:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5227478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Here are the options for Baby Watson:</p><p>    1) John and Sherlock raise it in 221B<br/>2) Stillborn/dies very early<br/>3) Fake<br/>4) David’s<br/>5) Dies dramatically to further the plot</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby Watson Killed in 4x3

Mofftisson wrote Baby Watson in for a reason, so we’ve got figure out what that reason might be. A baby would alter the story in a big way; they didn’t just throw it in thinking “Eh, we’ll find something to do with it later!” It has to do one of two things:

  * Bring Sherlock and John together
  * Pushes Sherlock and John apart



It has to affect John and Sherlock’s relationship in some way - because everything on this show does. It could also serve secondary functions (like showing that Mary is a villain or semi-redeeming Mary), but it _has_ to do something with John and Sherlock’s relationship.

 **The baby has not yet impacted in the story _in any way._** I know that many people believe that the baby is what made John go back to Mary or what is stopping John and/or Sherlock from sending Mary to jail, but I disagree:

In regard to John forgiving Mary because of the baby, any benefits to having your kid be raised by two parents do _not_ outweigh the risks of having your kid be raised by:

  * an assassin
  * with people actively searching for her
  * people who probably wouldn’t hesitate to use the kid as leverage against her
  * a woman that you, the father, hate, so it’s not like it’s going to be a great home environment
  * [a psychopath](http://ifyouhaveenoughnerve.tumblr.com/post/77363398901/penitence-paradox-and-psychopathy-why-mary-is-a)



Maybe not the most responsible fatherhood choice to let Mary be involved with this kid. It is in no way “honorable” to forgive to a freelance assassin who shot a man who was not a physical threat to her regardless of whether or not she’s pregnant with your kid. There’s pretty much _no_ circumstance in which it would be “honorable” to forgive a freelance assassin who shot a man who was not a physical threat to her. Why would you think John thinks being pregnant outweighs killing people for money? The baby didn’t keep John and Mary together in HLV because [John read the flash drive and went back to Mary to plot against her](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97682234962/john-read-the-flash-drive). So the baby hasn’t impacted the story there.

In regard to Sherlock and/or John being unwilling to send a pregnant Mary to jail, what do you think happens to real pregnant women who commit crimes in real life? Just let them go free until they give birth and hope they don’t kill any more people or rob any more banks in the meantime? No, you send the women to jail like any other criminal, and the babies are born in jail. A baby is not actually a “get out of jail free” card. So in my opinion, that’s _not_ why the baby was put in the story because the baby _does not impact_ whether or not Mary goes to jail for shooting Sherlock. In fact, by farthe safest thing for the baby would be to put Mary in jail - where Sherlock and John know that Mary can’t just up and run off at any point, which she certainly could’ve done if she decided that John wasn’t going to forgive her and would turn her in. So the baby hasn’t impacted the story there.

Here are the options for Baby Watson:

  1. John and Sherlock raise it in 221B
  2. Stillborn/dies very early
  3. Fake
  4. David’s
  5. Dies dramatically to further the plot



I actually _like_ parentlock - so I’m really not just saying I think the baby’s going to die because I hate it or something. I really don’t think John and Sherlock will raise it in Baker Street because that would totally change the tone of the show. The only way to do that would be if the baby was really never around in Baker Street and Mrs. Hudson took care of it mostly - and if it’s never around, then what was the point of writing it in? Also, the baby is very, very rarely referred to in anything but a negative light - and then only sort of neutrally - and that sets me up to think this is not going to happen. The fact that [Mark Gatiss is so dismissive of the baby that he jokes that it’ll get eaten by the Watsons’ dog](http://becks28nz.tumblr.com/post/81763521805/mark-gatiss-sherlock-q-a-brazil) implies that the baby is not set up to stay on this show. [mild-lunacy talks about that in greater detail here](http://mild-lunacy.tumblr.com/post/132750041499/why-parentlock-is-very-unlikely).

Having it be stillborn is very anticlimactic: what was the point of it, then? It hasn’t affected the story _at all_ ; it was just written in and then written back out for no reason. It didn’t keep John and Mary together in HLV because [John read the flash drive and went back to Mary to plot against her](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97682234962/john-read-the-flash-drive); it didn’t stop Sherlock from sending Mary to jail. The baby had nothing to do with it.So the baby has not yet impacted in the story _in any way._ It has to do that, and having it be stillborn doesn’t.

It being fake is just really unrealistic at this point. Even supposing Mary could’ve tricked her doctor husband (theoretically possible since this is TV and he was gone for most of the pregnancy), there’s still the fact that she’s 9 months pregnant at the end of HLV, so she’s going to be giving birth very soon. Certainly they can’t stretch it out to the third episode of S4 because

  1. then Mary can’t do much of anything interesting/assassin-y all season
  2. S4 can’t possibly be less than 1 month long



If she could give birth in 4x3, and it turns out it’s fake, then it would just be part of Mary being a villain, but since [they can’t reveal she’s a villain/Moran until 4x3](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96502039387/the-season-four-finale-the-three-garridebs-much), it’d be _kind of a giveaway_ she’s a villain if you find out in 4x1 that she faked a pregnancy to get John to stay with her. The baby can’t be resolved/gotten rid of until Mary is resolved/gotten rid of/whatever, and [Mary will resolved/gotten rid of in 4x3](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96502039387/the-season-four-finale-the-three-garridebs-much), ergo the baby will be, too, and the timeline of that means it’s real. The only way it could be feasible that the baby is fake is if Mary disappears in 4x1 to return as a villain in 4x3, and I think there are [some other problems with that scenario](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/126345401717/oka-but-what-if-mary-goes-back-to-work-for-jim-in).

I don’t think it can be David’s for the same reason I don’t think it’ll be stillborn: having it be David’s and then just writing it out - “Oh, it’s David’s? Oh, here, David, just have it, then. Well, done with that.” - is pretty shoddy writing, and they aren’t shoddy writers. If it’s David’s it touches _none_ of the rest of the story line, then. **If John were staying for the baby in HLV (instead of because[he’s plotting](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97682234962/john-read-the-flash-drive)) and later leaves Mary because the baby’s David’s, the implication - intended or not - is that John thinks Mary cheating on him is worse than Mary killing Sherlock.**

David was introduced as Mary’s ex-boyfriend… and frankly, that’s too much of a giveaway for Mofftisson. They’re faking us out. It’s what they do. I don’t think David’s her ex-boyfriend. I think [he’s her confidante](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/103935004260/david-is-marys-confidante). Which means he’s a villain. Which means that **even if David were the father, he couldn’t take the baby because he’ll be in jail**. It would go into foster care. So it being David’s doesn’t fix anything or simplify the baby situation at all. In this situation, John should probably adopt the baby - and it would make him look pretty callous if he didn’t - so that brings us right back to all the problems with it being raised in 221B.

The reason the David Junior theory is so popular is because it just _fixes_ everything real fast - a fix-it fic of S3 - but that’s not how the show works. Mofftisson could’ve “fixed” everything a hundred different ways, but they want to draw out the tension. David Junior is a bit of a bad soap opera fix: the resolution would disproportionately easy to the level of conflict originally raised by the baby. Mofftisson have written in a big conflict with the baby, so it only makes sense that it’s going to play out like a big conflict.

 ** _David being the father adds nothing to the story. In fact, none of_** **_these theories - David’s, stillborn, fake, in 221B - add anything to the story. So I don’t think they’re true._**

There are a couple hints that it’s David’s, but the only huge one is Mrs. Hudson saying “And then I found out about all the other women.”

This has to refer to Mary cheating on John, right? Well, how about this: **[Mary was married previously](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/101020336552/the-silver-blaze-and-james-bond-in-the-season-four).** _And_ this ties in with CAM’s telegram at the wedding about Mary’s family:

 

> SHERLOCK _(reading)_ : “Wish your family could have seen this.”

It’s obviously a threatening message, so something bad has to be happening/have happened to [Mary’s family](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/95870591462/mary-as-moran-vs-mary-as-birdy-theyre-both-true). Of all the ways CAM could remind Mary he’s after her, he chooses a line about her family.

##  **So here’s the theory:**

I think [_Rumpelstiltskin_](http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Rum.shtml) is a likely candidate to be the basis for for what goes down with Baby Watson in 4x3:

  * Baby Watson = first born child
  * Jim = Rumpelstiltskin, the fairytale villain
  * Mary = John/Sherlock need to guess her true name



_[More>>](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/117007658997/will-we-ever-know-marys-real-name-oh-and-what) _

In 4x3, John and Baby Watson are kidnapped and the kidnappers ([Barry’s family called the Waters Family](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/95870591462/mary-as-moran-vs-mary-as-birdy-theyre-both-true)) call Mary to say she can only save John and Baby Watson if she goes to a certain location (so they can kill her when she gets there).

Possibly Mary tries to rescue the baby, possibly she doesn’t. It doesn’t really matter either way, but Mary letting John/Baby Watson die also sets up an amazing callback to TRF. I think they’re going to do something where Sherlock is shown not to be a sociopath because [Mary is the real psychopath](http://ifyouhaveenoughnerve.tumblr.com/post/77363398901/penitence-paradox-and-psychopathy-why-mary-is-a-bit), and this sets up a direct parallel to [the circumstances in which Sherlock jumped](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/100860680167/the-roof-at-reichenbach), but Mary makes the other choice.

 

> JIM: Your friends will die if you don’t … Three bullets; three gunmen; three victims. There’s no stopping them now … Unless my people see you jump.

However, it doesn’t really matter if Mary tries to rescue the baby or not. Once the Waters Family contact her, Mary knows Jim has completely sold her out because the bad guys after her have suddenly found her after 5 years of safety. [The only way that Mary can keep John and stay alive and out of jail is to kill both Sherlock and Jim](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/tagged/mary-as-moran).So that’s what she goes to attempt, and whether or not she tries to rescue Baby Watson, it’ll be too late. Of course, we won’t actually see the baby’s death. In fact, we might just hear a gunshot and the audience won’t know until later if it was John or the baby that was shot.

At this point, John escapes from the kidnappers and gets Sherlock to help him save Baby Watson, not knowing that it’s already dead. **[Given the narrative arc, Sherlock has to lose John in S4](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/105279839079/the-final-problem) (the pain of loss). There’s only one way John would ever, _ever_ (temporarily) leave Sherlock: if the baby was killed.**Which circles back around to what I said at the beginning:

The baby has to do one of two things:

  * Bring Sherlock and John together
  * Pushes Sherlock and John apart



It has to affect John and Sherlock’s relationship in some way - because everything on this show does.

##  **“That’s too sad!” you say:** _  
_

I actually _like_ parentlock - so I’m really not just saying I think the baby’s going to die because I hate it or something. While killing off a baby is never exactly cheerful, there are grimmer and less grim ways to do it, and I don’t think this will be a particularly grim one.

Let me state some things up front:

  * **I don’t think we’ll ever see the baby on screen.** Not once. The audience will never see it. It will just be referenced/talked about a couple times, but we’ll never see it. Therefore the audience will not be able to form an emotional connection to it, so it’s death will be much, much less sad for the audience.
  * I’m not talking about a pig-tailed toddler. I’m talking about a 4 month old. **It will not be a character** that interacts with the other characters for the audience to be attached to. I’m not saying its life is worth less because it can’t talk yet, but because it hasn’t had a chance to interact with other characters or do cute things, the audience can’t form a connection with it.
  * There’s **no chance the baby will be killed on screen** or the audience will see its body.
  * There’s **no chance the baby will be killed because of anyone’s direct actions except for the villains’**. (AKA: it doesn’t die because of Sherlock or John or Molly.)



**1) They’ve already done things this dark.**

  1. Sherlock killing CAM in cold-blood in HLV. Sherlock killed CAM to protect John, therefore making his actions justifiable by the show’s standards. But there’s no way around the fact that this was just straight murder. Self-defense in advance is not self-defense. Mofftisson could’ve written it so there were documents and CAM went to jail. Or CAM could’ve been killed by a different villain (as per ACD) or killed by the SWAT team. But that didn’t happen because they wanted the drama and darkness of Sherlock killing CAM. If anyone had predicted “Sherlock is going to kill a villain in cold-blood when said villain is not actively a physical threat to anyone,” everyone would’ve said “Are you crazy; that’s _way_ too dark.” But it _wasn’t_ too dark for this show to do, because it happened.
  2. Soo Lin being killed by her own brother in TBB. Soo Lin was a fairly large character in TBB, nearly as large as Henry Knight. She was also young and pretty and therefore a character the audience would like to protect. She was killed by _her own brother_ \- which is pretty grim - because John left her alone. Narratively, this didn’t really need to happen. Her brother could’ve changed his mind; she could’ve escaped; John could’ve stayed and killed the brother, and nothing much in TBB would’ve changed. But she was killed anyway.
  3. [They kill off mid-size characters fairly often on this show - including good guys. IDK why people say “no one on this show stays dead.”](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/117625340397/when-people-say-no-one-on-this-show-stays-dead)



**2) They will do sadder things.** [Mycroft will die](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96243001107/baby-watson-killed-in-the-season-four-finale). This will be easily 10 times sadder than the baby dying. Mycroft’s “ice man” heart will literally and metaphorically bleed out in Sherlock’s arms, for Sherlock, to save Sherlock, after taking a bullet for Sherlock and trying to protect Sherlock from Jim for years. He’ll die telling Sherlock how proud of him he is. It’s not Sherlock’s fault that Mycroft dies, but it never would’ve happened if Sherlock didn’t exist. Mycroft is a character the audience has an emotional connection to. It will be devastating. But it’s still going to happen.

 **3) People says it’s “unnecessary” to kill the baby - but I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.** Everything on this show is “unnecessary.” It was “unnecessary” to have Sherlock kill CAM - Mofftisson easily could’ve written it so there were documents and CAM went to jail. But that didn’t happen because they wanted the drama and darkness of Sherlock killing CAM. It was “unnecessary” for Mary to shoot Sherlock. Again, they wanted drama. It was “unnecessary” for Sherlock to go back on drugs. Drama. It was “unnecessary” for John to punch Sherlock. It was “unnecessary” for Sherlock to rescue Irene. It was “unnecessary” for Frankland to get blown up. It was “unnecessary” for two kids to be fed mercury. But all those things happened. In fact, the old blind lady was shot in TGG _only_ to tell the audience that Jim is really bad and that Sherlock is upset when people die, so that’s pretty much the definition of killing a character “unnecessarily.”

 **4) Babies die in real life - and their parents move on.** My neighbors’ baby died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. They were very sad; they grieved; and then they had another kid. My friends had a stillborn baby. They were very sad for several years, and then they tried again, and had another two kids. Babies and children die not infrequently in real life - from illness and accidents and sometimes from violence - so it’s just false to say that John absolutely couldn’t handle it because many people _do_. John is going to be very sad. He’ll probably be at least a little sad about it forever. But it’s not going to stop him from living the rest of his life. (And yes, John’s emotions after the baby dies can play out relatively realistically - because he’s going to be so upset as to leave Sherlock temporarily.) **  
**

**Every other baby theory I’ve seen is basically just a patch over what everyone seems to consider the mistake of writing in Baby Watson in the first place** : how to get rid of it the easiest - it’s David’s; it’s fake; it’ll be adopted; it‘s stillborn. **I don’t think finding a “patch” is the way to go about thinking about this show** because I don’t think this show is badly written.I don’t think Mofftisson would’ve written in the baby if it didn’t have a point- and having it be David’s, fake, adopted, or stillborn doesn’t give it a point.  


> The only thing that matters is what is – or what would be – the _purpose_ of this or any other development, and whether that’s congruent with the existing purpose presented or foreshadowed in the show. The idea that the baby is ‘just there’ is directly counter to that, which makes the baby (even in this best case scenario) untenable … [E]verything has to fit the arc and thus be set-up in a certain way … The baby can’t ‘just’ be there anymore than Mary can ‘just’ be there: not because it’s realistic or not, but because nothing matters except John and Sherlock, and how characters and events facilitate or help their character development to the end-goal of canon Johnlock, full partnership and ‘good man Sherlock’ … The point is the arc. That’s where the foreshadowing (or the type of foreshadowing) becomes relevant: it plugs into the arc. It doesn’t just exist by itself. (via [mild-lunacy](http://mild-lunacy.tumblr.com/post/132750041499/why-parentlock-is-very-unlikely)) **  
> **

**Nothing exists on this show except to further the story of John and Sherlock’s relationship.** We all know this baby is a plot device. In my opinion, [it has not yet impacted the plot _at all_. John did not go back to Mary for the baby](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/117682762145/when-people-are-like-john-went-back-to-mary); [he went back to Mary to spy on her after reading the flash drive](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97682234962/john-read-the-flash-drive). [The baby had nothing to do with it](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/117682762145/when-people-are-like-john-went-back-to-mary). So the baby still needs to serve a purpose - and that purpose has to do with John and Sherlock’s relationship because everything on this show does. There are only two ways a baby could impact their relationship: bringing them together, or causing angst between them.Raising it together could bring them together, but that’s very unlikely, so _the baby will cause angst between John and Sherlock._ Having it be David’s or stillborn or fake or adopted or even dying not because of a villain (as in it’s sick) _does not affect John and Sherlock’s relationship at all._ Process of elimination: the baby will be killed by villains. 

In real life, it’s sad when anyone dies. In fiction, it’s sad when a character the audience has a connection to dies. No audience connection - as with this baby - very limited angst.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta). Much more there.


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